For years, audiophiles have been dishing out dollar after dollar to attain the highest level of sonic perfection. Have they achieved it or have their efforts been a total waste? There are many who will argue one way or the other but, whatever the case, expensive speaker cables aren’t going away.
Pear ANJOU Speaker Cables – $7,250
Pear Cable Corporation’s ANJOU Speaker Cable, a 12 foot length of which retails for $7,250, reportedly “allow new levels of sonic accuracy to be explored.” Supposedly, this exploration is accomplished by “proprietary hybrid geometry,” “ultra low electrical reactance” and “fully annealed 99.999% pure oxygen free Copper.”
In response to a glowing review by Dave Clark, editor of Positive Feedback, in which he refers to the cables as “very danceable”, the James Randi Educational Foundation offered a million-dollar prize to anyone who can prove beyond the shadow of doubt that these expensive speaker cables actually perform better (to the human ear, mind you) than Monster Cable’s $80 HDMI cables. While the prize is available to anyone who can prove the superiority of the ANJOU cables, the JREF unabashedly directs this challenge at Mr. Clark himself. In fact, the JREF apparently has many such unclaimed prizes for audiophiles who can prove that certain exotic piece of audio equipment are actually as exceptional as they claim.
Nordost ODIN Supreme Reference Cables – $20,000
Using twenty-four conductors made of 99.99999% oxygen free copper with an extruded layer of silver, these cables promise uncompromising sound. The conductors are constructed using a “Precision Dual Micro Mono-Filament” design. I’m not sure what that means, but it certainly sounds awesome. The conductors are arranged in four groups of six conductors for maximum flexibility.
Nordost WHITELIGHT Glass Fiber Optic Cables – about $33,000
Audiophiles have been using fiber optic cables for awhile now, but they’ve always been an expensive option. Toshiba’s TOSLINK connectors (generically known as EIAJ optical) have been in use since the early 80s. The advantage of optical cable is that the optical fibers—strands of clear plastic or quartz glass used to transmit the signal—are not susceptible to the electromagnetic interference that plagues ordinary cables. It’s not surprising, then, that the most expensive audio cable in the world is a fiber optic cable.
Nordost, a company known for their scientific approach to audio/visual cabling, produces the WHITELIGHT fiber optic cable. Made for two-or-more channel audio systems, this expensive cable uses heavily polished, high quality glass fiber with three layers of low loss insulation and an internal damping mechanism to deliver the best possible sound. Each end is capped with a composite TOSLINK connector with precision-polished lenses.
Siltech Emperor Crown – over $40,000
Siltech utilizes both silver and gold metallurgy in the construction of their Signature series of audio cables. Their twenty years of research in the field have allowed them to claim the lowest measured distortion of any brand of audio cable. They do so by reducing the microscopic cracks (crystalline boundaries) in the silver and filling the remaining ones with gold. The Emperor Crown, part of the Signature series, has the distinction of being the most expensive audio cable on the market.
Coat Hanger – Under a buck
The world’s most expensive audio cables may sound nice, but do they actually sound better? According to this rather humorous story, a simple wire coat hanger produces sound that is virtually indistinguishable from that produced by audio cables sold by Monster, another brand known for their relatively expensive consumer cables. Perhaps you should think twice before emptying your wallet for a pair of speaker cables.
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